Archive for April 2005
Why Marketing Articles Like This One Drive Me Crazy!
I have a peeve about a great many articles on marketing for law firms. Some of the articles are apparently written by so-called experts who have clearly never practiced at a law firm. Others reiterate the same advice – network, seek referrals, join a bar association – without any analysis of whether these methods actually…
Read MoreWould You Apologize to Save Your Career?
Here’s a bit of sad piece from AP (4/8/05) on Lawyer Refuses to Apologize to Judge, Goes to Jail. Though details of the incident are sketchy, the article brought this question to my mind: would you apologize when you don’t believe you were wrong to save your legal career? According to the article, an Ohio…
Read MoreLex Think, Lex Do
This past Sunday, I attended Lex Think, organized by fellow bloggers Matt Homann, Dennis Kennedy and Sherry Fowler. I’d heard the conference described as a conference about nothing but in the end, it turned out to be about everything, from attorney-client relations, billable hour versus alternative billing and keeping the passion in one’s practice. Events…
Read MoreMake Bar Complaints Public – At Least to Other Lawyers
As many of my fellow bloggers and readers know, I’m no fan of bar disciplinary programs. Among other things, I believe that the bars disproportionally target solos and pursue sanctions for trivial infractions while sometimes failing to seriously investigate real dangers. That’s why many may be surprised to learn that after seeing ABA’s 2003 statistics…
Read MoreThe Bigger the Firm, The Bigger the Mistake
Newsflash: like solos, even large firm attorneys can file complaints in the wrong place, miss the statute of limitations and conceal the mistake – as shown in this article, Jury Awards Billy Blanks $15 Million in Legal Malpractice Suit (4/2/05). But it takes an extra special large firm to wind up liable not just for…
Read MoreEthics, Technology and the Solo
I have a guest post over at Ben Cowgill’s Legal Ethics Blog on A Solo’s View on Ethics and Technology. Clearly, as a solo, I owe much of my effectiveness today to improved and less costly technology, much of which was not around (or at least was not as affordable) back in November 1993, when…
Read MoreMalpractice Insurance: Don’t Start Practice Without It
Here’s an article, 10 Misconceptions About Malpractice Insurance, Phillip Fraim, Small Firm Business (3/28/05) that discusses some of the mistaken assumptions attorneys make in purchasing malpractice insurance. For example, Fraim points out that many attorneys wrongly believe that defense costs in a malpractice action do not affect policy limits (when they do) or that liability…
Read MoreNew shingler Scheherazade Fowler (who’s
New shingler Scheherazade Fowler (who’s in great company with other blogger-turned solos Dennis Kennedy, Kevin Heller and Howard Bashman, to name a distinguished few) publicly ponders whether she should keep her Massachusetts bar status active when she’s set up shop in Maine. No question, regardless of cost, a solo should never, ever, ever let go…
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